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Gradual US Rapprochement Possible

A member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee said on Monday a rapprochement between Tehran and Washington demands a "gradual" and "time-consuming" process.
"In view of thirty-five years of tension between the two countries, resumption of bilateral ties will be a time-consuming and gradual task," Nozar Shafiei told ICANA on Monday.
"The idea of restoring (Iran-US) relations may not be popular now. However, it will finally happen," he noted, adding, "Moderation in (the two sides') behavior and new conditions will most likely enable Iran and the US to re-establish their relations someday."
To justify his optimistic view, the lawmaker explained, "New considerations and conditions cause the reshaping of relationships between countries."
"There have been no two countries which have had ever-close (or -strained) relations throughout history," Shafiei said, adding that ups and downs in international relations between countries are the result of a combination of contributing factors, namely friendship, enmity and competition.
Commenting on the efforts underway by the United States and Cuba to normalize bilateral ties after a half-a-century-old break-off and comparing them to the recent diplomatic contacts and talks between the US and Iran, Shafiei noted, "Although both the Iranian and Cuban governments have had ideological conflicts with the United States, they follow two different ideologies themselves."
"Cubans, generally, hold a materialistic and socialistic ideology, while a theological and Islamic idealism prevails in Iran."
Relations between Washington and Havana entered into a deep freeze amid the Cold War after the Castro brothers toppled Fulgencio Batista in a revolution on January 1, 1959 and then steered their country into a close alliance with the Soviet Union.The US spent decades trying to either isolate or actively overthrow the Cuban government.